I must admit that I do have trouble understanding the key signatures of songs. Its no so much for songs that use all the expected chords in a particular key but when they seemingly break the rules. For example I have a song that I wrote that to all intents and purposes is in the key of D, The song starts and ends with D. The pre-Verse progression is D-G-F-D-F-G-D then the verse progression is D-C-G-D and the chorus D-A-G-D. These are all major chords. It looks like the chorus is in the key of D (D Em F#m G A Bm c#sus) and the verses are in the key of G (G Am Bm C D Em F#sus) except the rogue F chord. As for the pre-verse that looks like the key of C (C Dm Em F G Am Bsus) except the rogue D chord. Can some one please tell me how this works. You can hear the song here
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=328886&content=songinfo&songID=2710188
cheers
Paul
Great song Paul - congrats.
The song is in the key of D major throughout. It borrows a couple of 'foreign' chords from the parallel minor key, D minor which add an interesting flavour in parts but those chords in no way change our perception of the tonal centre, which is D.
That's the real test of the key: the tonal centre. And you get that from how the song sounds, not how it looks. In this case we can hear everything relating strongly to that D chord - so that's the key, regardless of the chords within.
Just a small point - You should say "KEY" not "Key signature" the key signature just means the arrangement of sharps or flats placed at the beginning of a piece written in standard notation for the convenience of writing/reading in whichever key the music is in.
Thanks Fretsource,
and thanks for the compliment, I take your point with the "Key Signature" title - fixed, cheers.
So I get the D A & G from the key of D and the F & C from the key Dm. As a general rule is it ok to borrow a chord or two from the minor of a particular key.
cheers
Paul
This question on keys in pop and rock comes up often. Here are a few things that come to mind.
1) Rockers tend to prefer easy chords. They'll gladly use a C instead of a Cm or a B7 instead of B, simply because it's easier.
2) The rules (of thumb) of chord substition mean that in general, you can substitute chords that contain 2 of the same notes. This means that instead of a C major (C-E-G) chord for example, you can often use:
A minor (A-C-E)
E minor (E-G-B)
C minor (C-Bb-G)
C7 (C-E-G-Bb)
Cmaj7 (C-E-G-B)
Csus4 (C-F-G)
Csus2 (C-D-G)
Cmaj9 (C-E-G-D)
and so on.... As long as none of the notes clashes badly (halftone apart) with a melody note, you'll usually be fine.
Another common substitution, especially in jazz, is to substitute a dom7 chord (like G7, G-B-D-F) with the dom7 chord a tritone away (Db7, Db-F-Ab-B) because the F-B notes are the most important ones in the chord.
3) Using the bVII chord and b7 note is so common in rock that it doesn't even qualify as an exception. You can think of it either as borrowing from the parallel minor (in C, borrowing Bb from Cm) or as changing one note in the VIIdim (Bdim=B-D-F) to make it major (Bb=Bb-D-F). Songs in G where the chords are G-C-D and F abound. You can think of this as Mixolydian mode if you like.
4) Other common chords are the bIII and the bVI, borrowed from the parallel minor. In C, that would mean borrowing Eb major and Ab major. More commonly, using C and F in A major (remember, rockers like easy fingering).
--
Helgi Briem
hbriem AT gmail DOT com
Thanks Helgi,
that starts to make sense now.
Cheers
Paul
